Bob Hope, at a career peak, is near top form in this farcical swashbuckler. Even weighed down with posh production values (it might be a particularly posh British ‘Panto’), it can’t keep the buoyancy out of his gags, quips and fourth-wall breaking. Some self-deprecating japes still hilarious in spite of contemporary references almost 80 years old. David Butler’s staging can be deadly, his pirate action wouldn’t pass in an Edwardian production of PETER PAN, but Hope was at his most engaged around this time, and seems tickled pink to see Samuel Goldwyn, unlike home studio Paramount, laying on the deluxe treatment.* Truth is, Hope’s more knockabout vehicles probably a better fit, and usually giving this underrated song & dance man a number or two missing here. Instead, runaway princess Virginia Mayo, who mistakenly thinks cowardly Bob has rescued her from Victor McLaglen’s pirate, gets the sole number.* But plenty of smiles and a big bang twist for a finish.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Arranged with a star swap: Goldwyn getting Hope/Paramount getting Gary Cooper to make FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS/’43. Both films major hits though BELL hasn’t aged well with the notable exception of Ingrid Bergman’s spectacular boyish hair cut.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *The opening measures of Virginia Mayo’s song (‘Kiss Me in the Moonlight’/McHugh & Adamson) awfully close to Rodgers & Hammerstein’s ‘Isn’t It Kinda Fun’ from STATE FAIR out the following year.
No comments:
Post a Comment